The Reason
by Samm-erai
Summary: My first fanfic. Just a short story about what seemed to be an ordinary day for Bella, that turned out to be very special. Please READ and REVIEW!


The weather is cold outside, not unexpected since it is the middle of winter. But today seemed different; the snow had this beautiful sparkle to it, instead of the usual slush that remained after every night's snowfall. I realized suddenly that it hadn't rained. I wonder why that interests me so much. Maybe I'm just losing it after all.

It had been about 14 hours since I had seen my angel, held him close in a weak attempt to make him stay forever, and I couldn't find anything to do to pass the time waiting for him to return. So here I was, after cleaning the dishes from breakfast, sitting at the kitchen table, twiddling my thumbs, simply waiting till I could gaze into those beautiful topaz eyes. My Edward, oh those topaz eyes. They will be a honey gold today, due to last night's events.

I truly hated when he went hunting, not because of what he was doing, just the time apart from him was enough to make me detest the whole idea. I can't let him see that though, because then he won't go (which doesn't sound too bad to me…no, he needs to go). At least I know he will be back soon, he said by lunch; it was 10:54, so that's getting closer. When he comes in, probably startling me in the process, he will pull me close, and just stare like he always does. I wonder why, I mean I completely get why I stare at him, but why does he do the same? Sometimes he is just so . . . bizarre.

Hmm, 11:02, I need something to kill the hour. I started to walk through the house. OH! The door to the closet where we keep all our old junk was left open and of course, I just had to hit it. I really do think I have some gravitational pull towards hitting stuff, doors, chairs, the floor. That's when I got the idea; I could clean the closet out? I'm sure Charlie would be happy, which could always work to my advantage.

After opening the door fully, I peeked inside. It had been years since I went in here, no reason really. I forgot what kind of stuff Charlie kept in there! It was such a crazy sight. Although it wasn't exactly the biggest hallways closet, he had single-handedly managed to pack anything you could imagine in there! From what I could see, there was a small box of multi coloured strings, two pairs of large rubber boots, a chair missing two of its legs, a bright orange cooler, and three different coloured electrical cords. And that was just the front layer. _Well, this is going to be fun_, I thought to myself.

I decided it was best to start by removing everything from the closet, to be sorted and then all put back. I would have never guessed just how much stuff there was in that little closet had I never looked. I had been at it for almost 20 minutes and I still wasn't done, probably due to everything on the upper shelf falling on top of me. After taking out that last box of various tapes and batteries, I thought I was done. When I turned to set the box in the hallways, something caught my eye. It was an old guitar case, tattered and scraped.

I instantly remembered it from when I was a little girl and would come visit Charlie over the holidays. He used to play it for me, sweet melodies when I was sleepy and then these silly songs that always managed to have me in stitches when I was sad. I couldn't believe I had forgotten such wonderful memories. Without thinking, I carefully grabbed the guitar case, walked into the living room, and sat on the couch.

When I opened the guitar case, I gasped inwardly at the guitar, and the rest of the memories that seemed to flood back to me in that instant. The body a deep mahogany, with a cream and black edge on the outside. It was both electric and acoustic; something that always made me think Charlie's guitar was so special. Of course I know knew that many guitars were like his, but it was still just as special to me. The inlays were a strange, swirled colour. They reminded me of pearls. The back of the neck and head were the same mahogany, with 'Kent' printed on the front of the head.

I couldn't help but stare at this simple piece of wood with strings when curiosity struck me. A million questions popped into my head. _Why did Charlie not play anymore? Could he teach me? Did he remember the songs he used to play me? I wonder if I could ever get really good. . ._

Without telling myself to do so, I slowly picked up the guitar and strummed once with my right hand. Ouch, it was out of tune. Maybe when Charlie got home from the office I could ask him to tune it for me. For now I will just have to deal with this lovely, out of tune, guitar. I strummed it again, this time softer. The sound it made me sort of calming, although I had no idea how to play it, I wanted to continue experimenting.

I tried using different fingers to strum, holding it different ways, and even though I was terrible at it, I still couldn't help the small smile the appeared on my face. While I was busy strumming nonsense, a noise caught my attention. It was a low chuckle coming from somewhere nearby. My hands flew up in surprise and the guitar began to fall. Thank God for vampire reflexes, for Edward caught the guitar before it had time to hit the ground.

"I'm terribly sorry for startling you, love" he said, even though the sparkle was still apparent in his light topaz eyes. Drats, I was dazzled again. He almost never realized when he did it, well until he noticed I had stopped breathing, which he always noticed before I did.

"Breath, Bella." I was instantly pulled out of my dazzled state, something I wasn't completely happy about, and leaned into his chest.

"Sorry, how was your night?" this may have seemed like a silly question but it was all I could think of since my brain was still restarting itself after my moment of incoherent thoughts.

"Boring, I missed you Bella" he stated matter-of-factly. As always, I felt my cheeks begin to burn, and I knew he could feel it too, since my face was buried into his chest. That sweet sounding chuckle escaped his lips again, which caused the blush to deepen.

I guess he decided to play dumb with me today because he looked at me innocently and then asked "And what is this?" pointing to the guitar.

I rolled my eyes and suppressed a laugh, "It's a guitar, Edward."

Now it was his turn to laugh, "I know that, Bella. I supposed I should have asked 'what are you doing with this' instead."

_Oh_, I felt a little stupid after that. "Well, I was cleaning the closet in the hallway, and I found Charlie's old guitar. I can't play it at all, but you could probably already see that" the blush that has slowly retreated from my face was instantly back.

His cold arms wound themselves around my wait and pulled me closer, when he whispered in my ear "Watching you play was utterly beautiful, Bella."

I looked up to see if he was kidding, but his eyes showed nothing but sincerity in them. Suddenly a question caught my attention and I blurted it out before thinking, "Can you play?"

"I focus on the piano, love." Oh well, maybe I could get Charlie to teach me and then I would be better than Edward at something for once! The idea made me giggle and just as he gave me a questioning look my stomach interrupted the question I knew he was about to ask. Edward just smiled that amazing crooked smile at me and gestured towards the kitchen.

I stood up and walked into the kitchen. HOLY CROW! It's almost 2:30! No wonder my stomach is growling. I just grabbed the first thing I saw in the fridge, which turned out to be a piece of pizza. He pulled me onto his lap while I ate, and as always he watched me intently. When I was done I went upstairs to have a few human moments, brushing my teeth and whatever else I could think of to look good for Edward.

When I came back downstairs, he was nowhere to be seen. Strange. I had taken two steps when I tripped over my own feet, and when I caught myself with the wall, I really began to worry. Where _was_ he? I shiver ran down my spine and I noticed it was too cold in the room. Oh! The door was left open, Edward would have closed it when he came in. Then I noticed his boots were no longer beside the door. Ugh, was he really going to make me go out in this?

Edward knows me too well, and he knows I will follow him out. Was he trying to kill me? I mean I know it is beautiful out today and the ground isn't slippery, but it is still me, Bella, which we are talking about. I quickly got my boots on and slipped into my coat and trudged out into the cold. I momentarily stopped, to take in my surroundings. The snow was falling softly, gently dropping fluffy snowflakes onto the ground. The sun was shining, a rare occasion in Forks, and it caused the snow to sparkle in the most glorious way. It somewhat reminded me of Edward. Right, Edward! _Where_ is he?

Looking around again, I noticed a clear path leading to the woods. EDWARD! Now he was leading me into the woods _without_ his help?! Oh there would be hell to pay when I was through with him. . .

I began to walk on the path, towards the woods. My head was reeling as I tried to figure out what he was up to. I had to admit, whatever he did to the ground, it was pretty flat and somewhat easy to walk on. That comforted me as I reached the edge of the woods, where the path continued. After a few minutes of walking, I was getting sick of the anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach. I hate surprises. Yet Mr. Perfect just feels the need to always surprise me. He is in so much trouble . . .

Just as I began to plan my cold treatment towards him, I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight before me. There was Edward, standing under the canopy of snow-covered trees, holding Charlie's guitar, smiling my favorite crooked smile at me. A small part of my brain noted that there was a thick blanket laying on the ground, under enough trees that the snow did not fall on it. Edward was a different story. The trees where he stood were thinner, and a light dusting of snow fell over him. With this snow, there was also sunlight, not a lot, but enough that he was subtly glistening. It took my breath away.

Even though I thought it wouldn't possibly get any more perfect then it already was, somehow it managed to. He began to strum and I instantly recognized the song. Tears began to flow freely down my face when I heard his voice sing the lyrics that I would belt out when I was alone. I couldn't believe it. How did he know? Probably Alice, but that didn't matter now. All that mattered was him; there was nothing else at that moment.

I'm not a perfect person  
There's many things I wish I didn't do  
But I continue learning  
I never meant to do those things to you

I became aware that he had walked closer to me, his velvet voice nearly a whisper, but the notes coming out just as strong as before. I wanted to reach out and touch his face, to tell him how much I loved him, but my feet were firmly planted in the spot I was standing.

I'm sorry that I hurt you  
It's something I must live with every day  
And all the pain I put you through  
I wish that I could take it all away  
And be the one who catches all your tears  
That's why I need you to hear

By that point the crying had stopped, which was a good thing, because I couldn't afford for the tears to be blurring my vision of my angel. I was staring, my eyes hadn't moved from his face since they first found him, and I'm sure he knew this fact. The corners of his lips were turned up in a smile while he sang to me, his eyes giving a quick look to the guitar and returning to study my face. I had no idea what expression eh was seeing there, and that was the last thing I was thinking about.

I realized that his lips had stopped moving, a soft smile emerging from them. He placed the guitar in its case on the blanket, without taking his eyes off of me. He walked over to me, slowly, and placed his hands on my cheeks. My heart, which had been abnormally calm throughout the entire wonder that was his song, began to pick up speed quickly.

His topaz eyes smoldered as he leaned in and softly kissed me. It was very sweet, but short-lived. I felt him smile against my lips as he slowly pulled away from me. That small smile turned into my crooked smile when he saw whatever expression was on my face. Taking him in, I was suddenly euphoric at the realization that this blessing was mine to keep, forever.

The tears slowly made their way down my cheeks again and I felt his cold fingers wipe the tears away and then he asked his famous question, "Bella, what are you thinking?" He knew enough not to worry, he could sense they were not related to sadness.

I did what any person who was insanely in love would do, I just kissed him. He seemed a little shocked by my 'answer', but reacted to my sudden whim. As always, it was not long lived, and he slowly pulled back to look at me. We stood there in silence for what seemed like eternity, just looking at each other.

When I started to remember about the weather and priorities, I hugged him closer and whispered to him, "I knew you were lying about not being able to play."

At this, his musical laughter filled the air and he said, "Bella, I told you I focused on piano, but never said I couldn't play" and with that we walked back to the house hand in hand.  
_  
_


End file.
